Myst (PC) review

"Unfortunately, Myst is like an empty Christmas present. It sure does look pretty on the outside, but the actual thing inside the box will let you down."

It defies me why some people think that Myst is a game. Quite simply, Myst is an extremely basic text adventure with absolutely NO action in it, dressed up in a pretty package (for the time) of graphics and integrated full motion video.

In Myst, you must save an imprisoned inventor and explorer (Atrus). I don't want to ruin the story, but it is said in the instruction manual and the beginning of the game that his two sons imprisoned him. It's your job to free him, if you wish.

To do so, you wander around the island known as Myst. Myst is made up of different sections. In each section you'll find two pages. You bring these back to the central location, and give each one to the respective book that needs it (red and blue).

The story is fairly good, but not great. It won't drive you to finish the game. Which is a problem, because Myst is downright boring to play. You can't die in the game (until the very very end), eliminating a lot of the suspense when you journey through the darker areas that should be scary.

Along the way you'll have to solve puzzles to get to the book pages. Herein lies another problem - there are almost NO clues around. Getting through the game is pretty much a test of common sense and trial and error. Not much skill is required to play Myst.

Perhaps that's why it's the highest selling computer game of all time. Anyone can play Myst. It requires the intelligence of a monkey to click your way through the game. Hell, with one trick, you can take the game out of the CD case and beat it in three minutes.

The graphics in Myst are extremely impressive. They stand the test of time, as everything is lush and beautiful. However, it's kinda like watching a travel video. Sure, it's pretty, but it's not really exciting. There's no flashy special effects to keep you interested, just minor full motion video integrated into the game.

Music is also a strong point of Myst. Mysterious music plays at the proper time, the same with dark and foreboding tunes. Effects are good, as you can hear every babbling stream in the game. This is especially impressive when you consider that Myst was released in the early 90's.

The system requirements for Myst are very low. A mouse that won't wear down is essential. You need a 256 color monitor (VGA, anything made in the last 15 years should be okay), at least 66mhz, 2 megs ram, and a working CD-ROM drive. Any computer purchased in the last five years should run Myst full-speed quite easily.

Unfortunately, Myst is like an empty Christmas present. It sure does look pretty on the outside, but the actual thing inside the box will let you down. There's almost no gameplay, and once you beat the game, it's done. I suggest that you play the game once, just to get the story, then ship it out.

An aspect commonly overlooked in classic gaming is how solitary the experience is. Like lonely teenagers in a basement, the heroes of Super Mario Brothers and Sonic the Hedgehog work in complete isolation. While they may be working to save the world, there is little representation of this in their respe...

The .hack series has established itself as a guilty pleasure of roleplaying video games, akin to Sylvester Stallone and action movies or The OC and cheesy teen dramas. Despite repetitive button mashing and frustrating artificial intelligence, .hack remains entertaining because of a ruthlessly addi...

Feedback

If you enjoyed this Myst review, you're encouraged to discuss it with the author and with other members of the site's community. If you don't already have an HonestGamers account, you can sign up for one in a snap. Thank you for reading!

You must be signed into an HonestGamers user account to leave feedback on this review.